Colic newborns these days are matter of concern for the nursing parents as they keep on crying all the times with no obvious reason or cause to address. Parents have sleepless nights just because of the colicky newborn. They try lots of measures to calm their weeping child but of no use.

Basically a large variety of causes are responsible for the newborn colic like gas trapping, acid reflux, immature mental and digestive system, lactose intolerance and many more to be proposed yet. For these aforementioned causes lots of remedies are being used but the best remedy for the colic newborns is Gripe water for the last 150 years.

Gripe water was accidently formulated by William Woodward in 1851 when he was trying to make some medicine for malaria. At that time this solution when given to the infants showed a great response in relieving them from colic. It was accepted and used by nannies there in England. Original gripe water contained 3.6 % ethanol, sucrose, sodium bicarbonate, dill oil and water. Nowadays lots of other herbal substances are being used for the preparation of Gripe Water which in one way or the other is effective in addressing the causes of colic newborns. The ingredients of gripe water are dill seed oil, fennel, chamomile and many more herbs which help in digestion and reduce stress from gastrointestinal tract.

Lots of formulations of gripe water are being made these days. Gripe water is available in three main types;

• Home made gripe water
• Commercially prepared gripe water
• Herbal gripe water

The best gripe water till now is herbal gripe water. Main advantage of it is that it has no side effects or toxicities like other allopathic drugs. So it can be safely used. There was controversy regarding use of alcohol and bicarbonate in gripe water. So almost all the manufacturers have quit including alcohol and soda bicarbonate as a constituent of gripe water. One must say that gripe water is the global hit of the centuries to come.

Other remedies for relieving colic newborn are white noise, swaddling, motion, changing infant diet, proper breastfeeding, proper positioning while feeding, proper sleeping posture and many more are to be discovered yet.